Do Televised Presidential Debates Sway Voters? Short answer: Probably.Historically speaking, presidential debates are relatively new. The first one presidential debate was held between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy in 1960. Before then, debates were seen as beneath presidential candidates.There were plenty of debates for other positions. The 1858 Lincoln-Douglass Debates for the Illinois Senate seat are probably the most famous, but the presidency was too important, and the idea was we should not elect a person who wanted that much power to the presidency.Since 1960 there have been several historical moments in presidential debates. Some were gaffs like Gerald Ford’s 1976 line, “There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe, and there never will be under a Ford administration.” Some were meant to be funny like Walter Mondale’s 1984 statement, “When I hear your new ideas, I’m reminded of that ad: ‘Where’s the beef?’” Some were cuts like Lloyd Bentsen’s 1988 VP debate, “I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy.”Others were more underhanded cuts like Obama’s 2008 line, “You’re likable enough, Hillary.” Then there was possibly the best line of all time when the 73-year-old Ronald Reagan said “I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit for political purposes my opponent’s youth and inexperience.” When Reagan made his opponent crack up, the election was over. Then there was last week’s Biden-Trump debate that gave us lines such as Trump, “Let’s not act like children,” to which Biden responded, “You are a child.” Maybe early Americans were right in believing debates were not dignified.To be honest, I am not a big fan of debates. Its normally two blowhards shouting at each other and more often than not they don’t actually answer the questions asked. We saw plenty of that last week. I did like the format, and felt the moderators were fair.Lately debates are more about soundbites than issues and candidates end up in name calling. I appreciated the format where they stuck to time limits or the candidate’s mic was cut off.While name calling still broke out, they could only speak when they had a hot mic and not while the other was speaking.If you ask the candidates, I’m sure they would say last week’s debate was the greatest one in history.I assume they felt that way ...
